Furious Sri Lankan minister orders Tamil to be given secondary status in the North

Tuesday January 21, 2020

A Sri Lankan cabinet minister has ordered Tamil language to be given secondary status in the predominantly Tamil speaking Northern province.

Mr Wimal Weerawansa became furious upon seeing Tamil language having been accorded primary status in the name plaque that he unveiled on Saturday at the Palmarya Development Board in Tamil-speaking Mannar.

He immediately ordered government officials to replace the plaque with one that accords Sinhala primary status and Tamil secondary status.

On Monday, he published a note on his Facebook page, with photos of the replaced name plaque, claiming proudly that due to his intervention the Sinhala language has been accorded primary status in the Northern province, where only a few thousand Sinhala Buddhist settlers live.